Mobile Magazine » wiihttp://www.mobilemag.com Gadgets, Smartphones, Android Tablets, iPhone, iPad and all the latest tech you'd expect.Fri, 21 Nov 2014 14:04:17 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.3Try Oculus Rift And Wii To Roam Around On The Back To The Future Hoverboardhttp://www.mobilemag.com/2014/04/21/oculus-rift-wii-back-to-the-future-hoverboard/ http://www.mobilemag.com/2014/04/21/oculus-rift-wii-back-to-the-future-hoverboard/#commentsMon, 21 Apr 2014 09:52:42 +0000http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=155187Check out how you can fly in virtual space by using an Oculus Rift and a Wii Balance Board.

The future is here, at least in virtual reality! For many like me, who grew up fantasizing time travel after watching the ‘Back To The Future’ (BTTF) flicks, had our own must have props. The hoverboard, which Marty McFly uses in Back To the Future II, topped the list for me.

Back to reality now! Though replica hoverboards, which can actually float an inch or two are available now, they can hardly take the weight of a kid, forget a 200-plus pounder like me. But things are not as bleak as it used to be for us wannabe hoverboard junkies.

Behold the Oculus Rift, the Wii, and their holy union. Yes, someone actually hoverboarded his way around a virtual city block. Check out the video below and let’s hail the pioneer, who happens to be developer Kieran Lord, more popular on Twitter as Cratesmith. He used the Wii Balance Board, Oculus Rift, and some clever, secret (as of now) coding, to fly in virtual space!

Lord explained the thrill in a comment on Reddit. “The way I’m imagining the hoverboard physics is slightly different to the BTTF maglev skateboard. It’s more a snowboard with a ‘virtual slope’ of the front/back angle of the board. If that works and feels good the player could just get up a ton of speed and then stomp their back foot to get the same effect as going over a jump ramp.”

The younger crowd probably won’t see the point of this, but this could be awesome for those of us who killed endless days with our first handheld game system, the GameBoy. Chad Boughton, missing the tactile response of those 2 simple buttons and direction pad decided to swap out the dot matrix display in his GameBoy for his Galaxy Nexus’ Super AMOLED display.

Chad first removed the GameBoy screen and trimmed the case so a GNex case could be flushly mounted to the rest of the GameBoy body. His next challenge was to get the buttons to work wirelessly with the phone. He trimmed up the GameBoy’s circuit board to make room for the inner workings of a Wii Remote which he connected to the buttons of the GameBoy. After that he simply installed the Wii Controller IME app so the GameBoy would communicate with the Nexus. Below you can see a video of this awesome mod in action as well as some explanation of the construction.

I really hope some company takes the reins of this and produces a consumer version of this for the masses, I know I’d buy one!

]]>http://www.mobilemag.com/2013/01/11/gameboy-transformed-into-android-remote/feed/0Everything We Know About The Nintendo Wii U Tablet Controllerhttp://www.mobilemag.com/2012/06/07/everything-we-know-about-the-nintendo-wii-u-tablet-controller/ http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/06/07/everything-we-know-about-the-nintendo-wii-u-tablet-controller/#commentsFri, 08 Jun 2012 00:20:36 +0000http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=134160We thought cost could be an issue and we also thought battery life could be a problem. And now, Nintendo has confirmed our hesitations about the latter.

]]> When Nintendo officially revealed Wii U to the world and showed that we’d each have a touchscreen tablet controller in our hands, we had our apprehensions. We thought cost could be an issue and we also thought battery life could be a problem. And now, Nintendo has confirmed our hesitations about the latter.

While we haven’t heard anything concrete about price yet, we have learned that having all that tech in a controller is going to cost you in battery life. You can expect to only get three to five hours per charge. Given many people’s propensity towards marathon gaming sessions, this could prove to be a huge problem. Can you imagine being in the middle of an awesome session of Zelda or Mario Kart, only to have your controller die on you? Not good. And it takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge it.

As far as other major highlights about the Wii U, it’ll use an IBM Power-based multi-core processor, AMD Radeon-based high-definition GPU, internal flash memory, SD card slots, USB storage, Wii U and Wii optical discs, 802.11/b/g/n Wi-Fi, four USB 2.0 ports, legacy support for Wii controllers and accessories, up to 1080p video (including HDMI), video chat, Internet browser, and video entertainment (Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, etc.). There’s also something called Miiverse, which is like a Mii social network to post messages and challenge friends to games.

What do you think? Are you buying a Nintendo Wii U when it launches this holiday shopping season?

]]>http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/06/07/everything-we-know-about-the-nintendo-wii-u-tablet-controller/feed/2Incantor: The Magic Gaming Wand for iPhone (Video)http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/05/17/incantor-the-magic-gaming-wand-for-iphone-video/ http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/05/17/incantor-the-magic-gaming-wand-for-iphone-video/#commentsThu, 17 May 2012 11:05:00 +0000http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=133464You know what's the problem with Diablo III (aside from all the connection troubles people have been having)? You still play with a keyboard and a mouse. A new Kickstarter project has come up where you get to cast spells and engage in combat using a real magic wand.

You know what’s the problem with Diablo III (aside from all the connection troubles people have been having)? You still play with a keyboard and a mouse. A new Kickstarter project has come up where you get to cast spells and engage in combat using a real magic wand. It’s called Incantor.

Of course, it’s not a real magic wand. Instead, it’s a Bluetooth connected controller for your iPhone or other smartphone and you make your way through the game by “shaping” spells in the air. The wand is also used to lock onto targets on the screen and otherwise play the massively multiplayer online game. The initial release calls for two or three game modes with ten classes of wands.

If you head over to the Kickstarter page, you’ll see that the developers are seeking $100,000 of funding by June 8th. Considering that this looks like little more than a mobile version of a Wii game, I’m not sure it’ll really enchant enough gaming interest.

]]>http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/05/17/incantor-the-magic-gaming-wand-for-iphone-video/feed/0New Game Lets You Stuff Your Smartphone in a Foam Ball and Chuck Ithttp://www.mobilemag.com/2012/02/14/new-game-lets-you-stuff-your-smartphone-in-a-foam-ball-and-chuck-it/ http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/02/14/new-game-lets-you-stuff-your-smartphone-in-a-foam-ball-and-chuck-it/#commentsTue, 14 Feb 2012 17:02:55 +0000http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=129187Playing games on a smartphone is fun and all, but flicking your finger up the screen isn't exactly the same thing as rolling a bowling ball down a real alley. Physical Apps wants to change that with what they call TheO.

]]> Playing games on a smartphone is fun and all, but flicking your finger up the screen isn’t exactly the same thing as rolling a bowling ball down a real alley. Physical Apps wants to change that with what they call TheO.

On display at the Toy Fair 2012 in New York, TheO is a foam ball that can house your iPod, iPhone, or Android device. It’s about the size of a standard soccer ball and they say that once your device is inside, it’s virtually indestructible. You then load up a compatible app, sync up your phone with a secondary display (like a Smart TV) and have at ‘er. Just bear in mind that the slot won’t fit larger Android phones, so don’t even think about stuffing the Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy Note in there.

One prime example is the bowling app where you quite literally roll the ball, with phone and all, down your hallway or toward your HDTV. They also have a digital hot potato game and a “socially interactive game” that comes bundled with TheO. Personally, I think this is a terrible idea. We already have the Wii and Kinect for this kind of thing, and neither of those require me to put my $600 smartphone potentially in harm’s way.